Tag: Mental Health

Burnout can happen quietly, through creeping fences. But you can get back on track.

I stood in my boss’s office and for the first time, said ‘No’ to him directly. As someone who always wanted to become a dedicated employee, I felt incredibly guilty for refusing to take on another project.

The exhaustion was real. I felt I didn’t have the mental, emotional, or physical capacity to do more. What’s worse is that I felt ashamed and thought I was a failure. My brain ignored my achievements.

Should I turn off the laptop? I held back my tears, as I knew my commitment to my work went way beyond what was healthy. This was the first time I, a highly driven “career girl” was having a serious problem. I wanted to stay in bed and cry from despair and helplessness. I hated work updates as I couldn’t muster the conversation, and honestly, I was utterly burnt out. Because I didn’t care about my self at that stage of exhaustion, my stress levels skyrocketed, and my health was slowly destroyed.

Image Courtesy: @Thrive

To turn this burnout around, nourishment is non-negotiable. This includes getting quality rest, eating right, exercising gently, and getting fresh air. But you also have to nourish your heart and brain by doing things that make you feel like you.

Remember, coming back from burnout is more than putting gas back in the tank. You must step up and accept responsibility to make sure you’re okay through all the pressures and priorities in your life. It doesn’t matter what it is or how you do it—what matters is making your own self a priority.

When you cry, you’re meeting your emotions head-on. You are looking at them directly, allowing them to overwhelm you for a time, and then letting them go after your crying has run its course. Crying does not mean that you can’t handle your life—on the contrary, it indicates a deeper capability for handling life, because you’re not prone to counterproductive escapism.

Instead, you hold your ground and experience your true responses to life situations, regardless of whether they’re painful. And if holding your ground in this way does involve crying, you know that this is letting your body get rid of excess negative energy and making room for rejuvenating. This approach is nothing to feel ashamed of or to apologize for.

Certain people radiate positive energy and others negative energy. This energy is a combination of a person’s mindset, their dominant thoughts, and beliefs and can be easily felt. Positive people are loving, happy, compassionate, kind and supportive. Negative people are judgmental, always complaining and like to put others down. It’s not surprising to feel uncomfortable, unhappy and tense around them.

If you have a gut feeling about a person, follow it. That’s your body’s way to communicate with you, so pay attention to those warning signals. Always go with the gut feeling that feels GOOD. Similarly, listen deeply to the one that feels bad.

Of course, some people are simply awful to deal with. However, you can choose not to let their negativity influence you. Remember that you are influenced by the energy of others. But you have the power to set healthy limits and boundaries. No one can make you feel angry, sad, or worthless without your consent.

Don’t forget to set clear limits and boundaries with negative people and cut them off when they become overly critical or mean. Support your mental and physical health by nurturing positive thoughts and emotions. Focus on positive outcomes based on love and happiness. Whenever you find yourself surrounded by people you don’t like, create an emotional barrier. The sooner you do this, the happier you will be.

We all feel sad at times. There are occasions where we feel joyful, happy, angry, proud, motivated, excited and plenty of other emotions also come into action. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Every day is not perfect. In fact, some days are worse than others.

You can feel sad, lonely, isolated, lost or dejected. It might be because of someone you love, a friend, or a real-life incident. Sometimes it’s what we read or see online that influences our emotions.

It’s easy for others to criticize a person for failing to be positive and happy. This is one reason we tend to suppress our emotions. Some people would even make us feel guilty for being sad.

There’s one thing I’ve realised. The intense feeling of sadness is the perfect chance to re-evaluate our priorities and discover what is really important to us. Remember that if we think about our unexplained feelings, rather than suppressing or ignoring them, we would know the things that need our attention.

Once you identify what needs to be changed, you can take control of your thoughts. You can also be more emotionally resilient.

Brainwashing isn’t just movie stuff or fiction. It is present in different forms in our society. Manipulation, forcefully trying to convince people of something, constantly being bombarded with rants – we are all subjected to brainwashing on a daily basis.

Here’s the thing. Our brain is influenced in all sort of weird ways we can’t possibly imagine. No wonder brands, salesperson “trick” us into buying stuff we don’t need.

Repeating One’s Opinion will Make People believe it!

How many times have you been exposed to mindless rants? Sadly, when you keep hearing the same thing again and again, your brain is more likely to accept it as a common belief.

Researchers call the phenomenon “memory distortion.” Interestingly, even if the person is talking bullshit, we’re still likely to believe it.

Emotional Manipulation – How They Wash and Control Your Mind!

Emotional manipulation basically is an extreme form of brainwashing. We often associate the practice with toxic exes, but these techniques are used by advertisers, politicians and popular brands.

A form of social influence, emotional or psychological manipulation is not a healthy practice. It includes applying pressure to control someone’s thoughts and behaviors through crafty, abusive or other underhanded practices. Emotional manipulation happens when someone uses deception, or similar mechanisms, to exploit another person’s vulnerabilities to achieve his own goal.

An emotional manipulator might talk down your performance at work to make you feel insecure so that you won’t compete for a promotion. An emotional manipulator may use lies or deception to alter your perception of reality. Their goal is to tip the balance of power in their favor. Manipulators control other people by exploiting their weaknesses.

The manipulator will offer you choices, but they’d all lead to the same conclusion. The problem with emotional manipulation is that it is sometimes impossible to discover whether or not you are being manipulated! Your actions as the result of manipulation might be something that’s perfectly normal and okay for you.

What are the common techniques used by manipulators?

They try to isolate you from friends and family. This way they don’t have to worry about a third party. They’d ask you to choose between friends/family and them.

They will attack your self-confidence and esteem. Remember, a manipulator wants to be in a superior position, and mocking, ridiculing and making the victim feel inferior is a common practice. These attacks can be intimidating as well.

Most manipulators brainwash their victims by mentally torturing them. They often resort to blaming the victim and invading their personal space. Needless to say, they lie and makeup stories to mentally torture the victim. They also play upon gut feelings.

Though rare, manipulators can use physical techniques to brainwash a person. These include playing loud music and depriving someone of their sleep. A schedule is maintained that causes physical and mental fatigue.

Signs of a Manipulative Person

They make you feel sorry for expressing your concerns. You can’t talk about your feelings or ask for the change you need.

Lying, exaggerating and understating the truth are all means of manipulation. Manipulators will distort the facts to keep you off balance.

They make you feel guilty. This is a classic tactic. They want you to feel sorry for them. They only highlight their own problems and force you to believe that your emotions, opinions, and problems don’t matter. Manipulators might give the silent treatment to make you feel unimportant or trying to scare you.

Don’t Let Others Think for You.

Often we are blinded by reality and get stuck on a certain idea or belief. When our brain accepts an idea (whether it is right or not), it is impossible to change it no matter what people say.

To avoid brainwashing, surround yourself with a spectrum of information. Don’t settle for the idea/message that makes you comfortable. Stay away from people who care only about their own needs, those who put their self-interest above that of others. You’ll likely come across excellent manipulators who figure out all the ways to push your ‘hot buttons’ to get exactly what they want.

Many adults grow out of this type of manipulation – but some don’t.

To stop emotional manipulation, remember your worth. You are on equal ground with the other person and have the right to be heard. Avoid blaming yourself – never let them manipulate you into believing something is solely your fault.

Your freedom to express yourself through words and actions is essential to your well-being and your mental health. You can’t alter the behaviors of others, but you can limit your exposure to situations that are unhealthy and refuse to internalize the messages a manipulator tries to feed you.